I want to update my mobile phone

During last few days I played with CyanogenMod 10.1 nightly builds on my Nexus S phone. Then went back to CM 10 as it is more stable. But this also reminded me that I have 2 years old device…

So I did another round of checking what are options. As it will be for next 2 years I want 2GB of RAM, 720p screen and LTE support. And there is very small amount of those 🙁

HTC Butterfly. MicrosD slot, 1080p screen, Japan only so far.

LG Nexus 4. Latest Android for few releases granted. But also lack of microSD slot and only 16GB of storage.

LG Optimus G. Base of Nexus 4. Not available outside of few operators (mostly US).

Samsung Galaxy S3 LTE (GT-9305). MicroSD slot, MHL video output.

Samsung Galaxy Note II. MicroSD slot, MHL video output.

Now it is time to complain 🙂

LG Nexus 4 is available only in some stores (or phone operators) for 450+ € — no Google Play Store like it was with earlier models (I do not call current state as selling). Also no LTE on European frequencies. No 32GB storage model.

Samsung GT-9305 sounds interesting. But… It is Exynos 4412 based. And I read The Saga of a CyanogenMod Exynos4 device maintainer by Andrew Dodd which gives clear message “avoid Exynos4 if you can”. If even Samsung update can break your device then something is going wrong. And so far SGS3 LTE lacks CyanogenMod support which is one of main blockers for me as it shows that there are no custom “ROMs” for it (I do not count images remixed from stock images).

Galaxy Note II is huge and would take some time to get used to it. Has CM support already. But again — Exynos4 ;(

So it looks like I need to wait another few months and check will there be something worth buying. In meantime I will stay with last CM10 release running on my Nexus S.